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The story of our Alaska trip...July 18-Aug. 3, 2013

cruisin'mama

By cruisin'mama,
in Alaska

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cruisin'mama

cruisin'mama

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Day 11 was our day in Skagway. Two years ago, my friend and I rented a car from AVIS and drove to Emerald Lake. We stopped at so many places along the way using Murray’s Guide. This time, since I knew my son would enjoy the train, I booked a combo trip with Chilkoot Charters.

 

http://www.chilkootcharters.com/

 

We did the bus first followed by a return on the train. Bruce was our driver and we had a FULL bus! We were able to get 2 window seats on the right side, but my husband and son were in the very last row across the back of the bus. There ended up being 5 people in that row and was crowded. Bruce was a good guide, but it was very frustrating for me to just drive right on past places that I had stopped at 2 years ago. We made several stops, but not nearly enough in my book. I knew we were on a schedule so we couldn’t stop everywhere, and it made me realize that I wouldn’t do this trip again. Everyone else seemed fine with our trip, so maybe it was just me. I did stick my camera out the window a few times, holding on tight, trying to get some pictures of things we drove by. My husband would pass on this again too, but it could be because he was squished in the back row and our son fell asleep on his shoulder so he was stuck.

We did see a young black bear on the way up though it was on the wrong side of the bus for my son to see.

 

We had lunch at Caribou Crossing, the BBQ chicken lunch, and my husband and son did the dog cart ride. After lunch we drove up to Emerald Lake and had just enough time to take a few quick pictures before we had to leave to get to the train on time. We saw another black bear on the way to the train, but could only watch it for a minute or two before we had to move on.

Once we were back at Fraser, we boarded the train after another Chilkoot Charters bus, so the seats that were left were on the left side. I ended up staying outside almost the entire time, so it really wasn’t an issue for me. My husband didn’t complain and my son just loved being on the train, so all was well.

 

It had been a long day and my son was tired, so shopping was very limited. We walked back to the ship and relaxed for a while.

After dinner we just headed back to our room and I enjoyed our departure and sunset from our veranda.

 

 

 

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cruisin'mama

cruisin'mama

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Day 12 we had a whale watch with Misty Bay Lodge and Capt. Dan in Hoonah ( Icy Strait Point). http://www.mistybaylodge.com/

We had a quick breakfast and needed to be on the first tender to meet Hope to take us to the boat. There were just 2 other people on the boat with us. Capt. Dan went over safety info and gave us the quick “tour” of the boat, then we were off. We all sat outside on the back of the boat as we headed out. We were talking with the other couple when I looked over and saw some Orcas. Evidently Capt. Dan didn’t see them and after we all looked at each other, I went inside to tell Capt. Dan to turn around. There were 2 pods of Orcas and Capt. Dan radioed to the other whale watch boats. My son was really excited with seeing Orcas since one of his favorite movies is “Free Willy”. We stayed with them quite awhile which was pretty cool.

Then we headed in search of the humpbacks. We found lots of them. They were breaching and showing us lots of tails. It seemed like when one group would disappear, another group would appear somewhere else. It seemed they were everywhere. One time a couple of the whales swam within 10 feet of the boat. That was awesome.

 

Then we had to head back in. We saw even more whales on our way back. We all were so happy with the amazing experience we had!

Once we got back to the harbor, we walked back to the “cruise line” area. We threw the woodchips into the fire that we were given when we got off the tenders and took a couple of pictures. I wasn’t ready to go back to the ship yet, so my husband and son went back onboard for lunch while I walked around. I watched the zipliners fly over my head, walked the pretty nature trail, and perused the shops before taking the tender back.

 

I grabbed some pasta from the pasta station at the buffet and took it back to eat on the veranda. I watched boats heading out and the Celebrity Century join us in the bay. It was warm and sunny like it has been almost the entire trip, so I enjoyed sitting outside, taking in all the beauty around me.

 

After we left ISP and the casino opened, my husband and son went to the poker table. They were the only 2 at the table and my husband talked my son through his hands, even though he has a pretty good sense of what to do from playing on the poker machines by himself. After they both had won over $250 a piece, and gone through 4 dealer changes, the casino decided that my son couldn’t play anymore since he was getting some help. He had wanted to play at a poker table for a long time so he had fun while it lasted.

 

We went and got ready for dinner and again requested to be at a table in Juan Reyes and Nedim’s station. We found out that the maitre ’d was trying to accommodate us and switched Juan Reyes and Nedim to the table where we were seated. I’m sure that created some problems for them and we felt really bad. But Celebrity seems to want to keep their guests happy, so I went to the Customer Service desk and requested an “Attention to Detail Card” to fill out to express my appreciation for what they had been doing for us.

 

I enjoyed another sunset before going to bed.

 

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cruisin'mama

cruisin'mama

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In Hoonah....

 

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It was the funniest thing watching this cat try to get the squirrel. Lots of people were standing around watching. After about 10 minutes, the squirrel outsmarted the cat and took off without the cat even knowing it.

 

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mapleleaves

mapleleaves

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Great review! Thanks for sharing. There's no such thing as too many photos!

Please add your review to the " Cruise Reviews for 2013" link (probably on pg 2 or 3. Your details will be very helpful for next year's travellers.

 

Matanuska Glacier always looks like melting marshmellow flowing thru the valley. :)

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cruisin'mama

cruisin'mama

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Day 13 we arrived in Ketchikan to a foggy port. My husband and son were going on the Adventure Kart Expedition and I had a date with Island Wings to go to Anan!!!!

 

http://adventurekarts.com/

http://www.islandwings.com/

 

I had Toursaver coupon for the Adventure Karts so we saved over $200 on that excursion! They had to meet their guide at 9:45am and I had to meet Island Wings at 11:45am so we had breakfast and headed off the ship by 9am. The fog was lifting and it looked like it was going to be another great day. Since my husband is diabetic and I had found his favorite sugar-free dark chocolate cherry cordials at Ketchicandies last time I was here, we walked over there so he could buy some to take home. I stayed with them until their tour left then I did a little more shopping before taking everything back onboard. I grabbed an almond croissant then headed out again. I was really looking forward to my day at Anan!

 

There were 5 of us picked up by the Island Wings van and we went over to their office where Michelle arrived with the floatplane. We loaded in the plane with our guide an another person so there were 7 of us plus Michelle, the pilot. It took about 30-40 minutes to each the destination and we landed and pulled up to the beach where we all got out, and Michelle said she’d be back around 4:20pm to pick us up. We were told to use the porta-potty before we got going then were given a briefing by the ranger before heading out on the trail, following our guide. It was about a ½ mile walk on a boardwalk going up and down steps through a pretty forest area. We stopped briefly at the lagoon to look at the eagles, but then were urged to keep moving. We arrived at the observation deck and were given the “ok” to go up. There were SO many people there. I guess a small ship was in port at Wrangell and had brought boats of people over who had part of the 60 allotted permits for the day. There were a couple of bears in the river, but not too many. After a while most of the people had left and it was just the 7 of us plus 2 other people. The heat of the day was subsiding and the bears started coming out in larger numbers. We had all signed up for our 15 mins in “the blind”. When it was my turn, as luck would have it, there were no bears in the area for the full 15 mins. One came to the area just before we had to leave, so we all went down to have a look.

 

I was dealing with one major issue. I had bought my first DSLR camera for this trip. I managed to leave the battery charger and spare battery still charging at home. I had realized this before we boarded the ship and had bought another charger for the battery that I had with me. Unfortunately, although the battery fit in the charger as expected, it didn’t charge the battery, so even though I thought the battery was charged when I lugged everything to Anan, the battery was dead and I had no DSLR camera at Anan! :O . All I had was my little point and shoot that I brought along, JUST IN CASE. Luckily I threw that in the camera bag, otherwise I would have had NO pictures at all from Anan!

I still managed to take pictures, although most of them were blurry. It was pretty devastating for me, but I did get to experience Anan and some of the videos I took came out ok. We ended up seeing quite a few bears catching salmon in the river and at least one chasing the salmon upstream. That was pretty amusing! Over all, it was an amazing day and I am so happy that I got to go and experience it.

 

It was time to leave and a bear stood at the gate where we had to exit, not wanting to let us out. The ranger and our guide chased him off and we were able to proceed back to the beach to meet Michelle. She took us on the “scenic route” on the way back and we saw some mountain goats on the patchy snow covered mountains. It was a great flight but it was soon over and we were landing back in Ketchikan. He van took us back to the ship and we had about 15-20 mins before the ‘all aboard’.

 

I met up with my husband and son to hear how their day went. I guess there were a lot of people on their adventure and it was really dusty and dirty, but they had a good time.

 

It was the last formal night, so we all got ready and went to the MDR and had our favorite Juan Reyes and Nedim as our servers again. J The food and service were wonderful again!

What a nice day!

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cruisin'mama

cruisin'mama

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Now please remember, these were taken with my pocket camera that had no viewfinder, like I'm used to. I am not at all pleased with them, not anywhere near the quality I was planning to get with the DSLR, but at least I have something...

 

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